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Brazil and Unasur: a process of building leadership and regional

integration
By Jos Ricardo Martins, PhD. Candidate, Universidade Federal do Paran,
Curitiba, Brazil.
ABSTRACT
In the context of a new world order being built in terms of regional poles (Hurrell, 2007; Nolte, 2006;
Buzan & Waever, 2003), global governance based on regions and a multi-levelled conceptualization of
global governance, having regional formation of countries playing an important role in the new global
order (Langenhove, 2011, 2013) and above all interregionalism (Baert et al., 2014), we investigate the
future of regionalism in South America, its part in the new world order, and whether Brazil plays some
leadership role in this process. South America has turned into a geopolitical concept for Brazilian
foreign policy, and no longer a generic one. South American integration, along with the BRICS, is a
necessary element of Brazilian international strategy.
However, Brazil faces challenges to its leadership project. First in the domestic realm: Brazilian
foreign policy activism during Lula da Silvas government (2003-2010) was not continued in Dilma
Rouseff government (2011to present). Leadership is unfocused, if any. Second, Brazilian elites
(economic and the press) do not accept any good willing of Brazilian foreign policy and cooperation
towards countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and others with a more left stem, as the model
countries for Brazil should be Chile, Colombia and Peru. Thus softpower leadership is sabotaged from
an ideologically pro-market domestic perspective. From the outside, it is fair to ask whether South
American nations desire Brazilian Leadership, and if Brazil, especially its elites, is willing to pay the
price of it.
Our research addresses these questions. However, the following findings can be anticipated: Brazil
favors a new world order. Brazilian weak power resources leads to weak regional leadership,
nonetheless the country has found other ways for exercising its leadership, such as the consensual
hegemony. The main feature of Brazilian diplomacy is autonomy through diversification, which can
be translated into three folds: (i) soft-balancing against the United States; (ii) coalition building in
order to expand their bargaining power; (iii) position itself as leader of a more united South America.
In fact, analyzing foreign policy documents and statements, one can perceive that Brazil is keen to play
a bolder role in the new world order; Brazil needs a broader platform than Mercosur to support its
ambition; therefore the Unasur integration project is important for Brazilian diplomacy.